[328]:4447 An estimated 125,000 Americans left for Canada to avoid the Vietnam draft,[329] and approximately 50,000 American servicemen deserted. [17] It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. [195][40]:526 From 1969 on, search-and-destroy operations became referred to as "search and evade" or "search and avoid" operations, falsifying battle reports while avoiding guerrilla fighters. [253] The US Department of Defense estimates the VC/PAVN had conducted 36,000 murders and almost 58,000 kidnappings from 1967 to 1972, c. [245] Statistics for 19681972 suggest that "about 80 percent of the terrorist victims were ordinary civilians and only about 20 percent were government officials, policemen, members of the self-defence forces or pacification cadres. Further cinematic representations were released during the 1970s and 1980s, some of the most noteworthy examples being Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter (1978), Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979), Oliver Stone's Platoon (1986) based on his service in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (1987). During the land reform, testimony from North Vietnamese witnesses suggested a ratio of one execution for every 160 village residents, which extrapolated resulted in an initial estimation of nearly 100,000 executions nationwide. Once in power, the Khmer Rouge carried out the Cambodian genocide, while conflict between them and the unified Vietnam would eventually escalate into the CambodianVietnamese War, which toppled the Khmer Rouge government in 1979. Hanoi took advantage of the situation and increased its support for the guerrillas. [46] North Vietnam was also known for its abusive treatment of American POWs, most notably in Ha L Prison (aka the Hanoi Hilton), where torture was employed to extract confessions. Nixon was elected president in November 1968, at a time of great disillusionment with the White House and its handling of the conflict in Vietnam. The group was ultimately defeated in April following a battle in Saigon. "This article", noted Peter Church, "proved to be the only one of the Paris Agreements which was fully carried out. The reaction to the incident by the Nixon administration was seen as callous and indifferent, reinvigorating the declining anti-war movement. By ignoring ARVN units, the U.S. commitment became open-ended. Opposition to the Vietnam War tended to unite groups opposed to U.S. anti-communism and imperialism,[227] and for those involved with the New Left, such as the Catholic Worker Movement. Although they were nominally a civilian government, Ky was supposed to maintain real power through a behind-the-scenes military body. "[177] Thus, the public was shocked and confused when Westmoreland's predictions were trumped by the Tet Offensive. American Huey helicopters insert South Vietnamese ARVN troops, 1970. Marine Corps general Victor H. Krulak heavily criticised Westmoreland's attrition strategy, calling it "wasteful of American lives with small likelihood of a successful outcome. Recent scholarship has focused on "myth-busting",[358]:373 attacking the previous orthodox and revisionist schools of American historiography of the Vietnam War. The Western Political Quarterly. In July 1965, at the beginning of this steady escalation, President Johnson attempted to explain the need for increased military intervention in Vietnam in a press conference announcing that draft inductions would increase from 17,000 to 35,000 per month. The deputy military commander of the Viet Cong, was a female general, Nguyn Th nh. The target was Bun Ma Thut, in k Lk Province. [45]:275 Other estimates point to higher figures of 313,000 casualties. Upper figure initial estimate, later thought to be inflated by at least 30% (lower figure), The figures of 58,220 and 303,644 for U.S. deaths and wounded come from the Department of Defense Statistical Information Analysis Division (SIAD), Defense Manpower Data Center, as well as from a Department of Veterans fact sheet dated May 2010; the total is 153,303 WIA excluding 150,341 persons not requiring hospital care, Shortly after the assassination of Kennedy, when, On 8 March 1965 the first American combat troops, the, A study by Jacqueline Desbarats and Karl D. Jackson estimated that 65,000 South Vietnamese were executed for political reasons between 1975 and 1983, based on a survey of 615 Vietnamese refugees who claimed to have personally witnessed 47 executions. [338] Although a variety of birth defects have been observed, the most common deformity appears to be spina bifida. The U.S. and its allies mounted complex search and destroy operations, designed to find enemy forces, destroy them, and then withdraw, typically using war helicopters. [222], During the course of the Vietnam War a large segment of the American population came to be opposed to U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia. Although Dim was publicly praised, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles privately conceded that Dim had to be backed because they could find no better alternative. At World War II's end, Viet Minh forces seized the northern. At the same time, Hanoi realized it could not achieve a "total victory" and employed a strategy known as "talking while fighting, fighting while talking", in which military offensives would occur concurrently with negotiations. The first deployment of 3,500 in March 1965 was increased to nearly 200,000 by December. ", American War and Military Operations: Casualties: Lists and Statistics, "Australian casualties in the Vietnam War, 196272", "America Wasn't the Only Foreign Power in the Vietnam War", "Vietnam Reds Said to Hold 17 From Taiwan as Spies", "20 Years After Victory, Vietnamese Communists Ponder How to Celebrate", "Fifty years of violent war deaths from Vietnam to Bosnia: analysis of data from the world health survey programme", "Vietnam, The Necessary War: A Reinterpretation of America's Most Disastrous Military Conflict", "It's Called the Vietnam Syndrome, and It's Back", "The Vietnam War or Second Indochina War", "The National Archives Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File", "Research Guides: Vietnam Conflict: Maps", "Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics", "Asian-Nation: Asian American History, Demographics, & Issues:: The American / Viet Nam War", "The History Place Vietnam War 19451960", "The Final Declarations of the Geneva Conference July 21, 1954", "Geneva Accords | history of Indochina | Britannica", "China Contributed Substantially to Vietnam War Victory, Claims Scholar", "The Numbers Game: How Many Vietnamese Fled South In 1954? Thousands of refugees streamed southward, ahead of the main communist onslaught. [154] Johnson did not, however, communicate this change in strategy to the media. 5, pp. [146], The objective of stopping North Vietnam and the Viet Cong was never reached. [16] By early 1959, however, Dim had come to regard the (increasingly frequent) violence as an organized campaign and implemented Law 10/59, which made political violence punishable by death and property confiscation. [231], The Soviet Union supplied North Vietnam with medical supplies, arms, tanks, planes, helicopters, artillery, anti-aircraft missiles and other military equipment. Chloro-dioxins, which are inevitably formed as a byproduct of Agent Orange synthesis, are highly teratogenic, and there is substantial evidence that the birth defects carry on for three generations or more. [242] Nick Turse, in his 2013 book, Kill Anything that Moves, argues that a relentless drive toward higher body counts, a widespread use of free-fire zones, rules of engagement where civilians who ran from soldiers or helicopters could be viewed as Viet Cong and a widespread disdain for Vietnamese civilians led to massive civilian casualties and endemic war crimes inflicted by U.S. [85]:353354 The idea that the government of South Vietnam could manage its own affairs was shelved. [40]:517 On 27 October 1969, Nixon had ordered a squadron of 18 B-52s loaded with nuclear weapons to race to the border of Soviet airspace to convince the Soviet Union, in accord with the madman theory, that he was capable of anything to end the Vietnam War. The People's Republic of China provided significant support for North Vietnam when the U.S. started to intervene, included through financial aid and the deployment of hundreds of thousands of military personnel in support roles. By 28 March 35,000 PAVN troops were poised to attack the suburbs. Ho Chi Minh had wished to continue the war in the south, but was restrained by his Chinese allies who convinced him that he could win control by electoral means. Dim's elder brother Ng nh Thc was the Archbishop of Hu and aggressively blurred the separation between church and state. United States Vietnam Relations, 19451967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, vol. Eisenhower was born in Texas, raised in Kansas then educated at the West Point military academy, graduating in 1915. During that period, they stated, they lost 849,018 killed plus approximately 232,000 missing and 463,000 wounded. [40]:716, Chaos, unrest, and panic broke out as hysterical South Vietnamese officials and civilians scrambled to leave Saigon. Between 1969 and 1971 the U.S. Army recorded more than 900 attacks by troops on their own officers and NCOs with 99 killed. [243]:251 A report by Newsweek magazine suggested that at least 5,000 civilians may have been killed during six months of the operation, and there were approximately 748 recovered weapons and an official US military body count of 10,889 enemy combatants killed. His plan to build up the ARVN so that it could take over the defense of South Vietnam became known as "Vietnamization". "[315] In addition, doubts surfaced about the ability of the military to train foreign forces. The presidents of the United States during the Vietnam War were Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford. [201] While U.S. forces were redeployed, the ARVN took over combat operations throughout the country, with casualties double US casualties in 1969, and more than triple US ones in 1970. After the French military withdrawal from Indochina in 1954 following their defeat in the First Indochina War the Viet Minh took control of North Vietnam, and the U.S. assumed financial and military support for the South Vietnamese state. Scientific reports have concluded that refugees exposed to chemical sprays while in South Vietnam continued to experience pain in the eyes and skin as well as gastrointestinal upsets. In total, the Soviets sent North Vietnam annual arms shipments worth $450million. Operations crossed national borders, and the U.S. bombed North Vietnamese supply routes in Laos and Cambodia. U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote in 1954: I have never talked or corresponded with a person knowledgeable in Indochinese affairs who did not agree that had elections been held as of the time of the fighting, possibly eighty percent of the population would have voted for the Communist Ho Chi Minh as their leader rather than Chief of State Bo i. According to the Vietnamese government, ordnance has killed some 42,000 people since the war officially ended. Additional common crimes included theft, arson, and the destruction of property not warranted by military necessity.[238]. They were however criticized for ignoring the political nature of the insurgency. [33] Between 195,000 and 430,000 South Vietnamese civilians died in the war. "[140] An undated NSA publication declassified in 2005 revealed that there was no attack on 4 August. [109] Seventeen people were killed in an attack at a bar in Chu c in July, and in September a district chief was killed with his family on a highway. These included the Ho Chi Minh trail supply route, which ran through Laos and Cambodia. Tra calculated that this date would be Hanoi's last opportunity to strike before Saigon's army could be fully trained. [71]:14, Between 1953 and 1956, the North Vietnamese government instituted various agrarian reforms, including "rent reduction" and "land reform", which resulted in significant political oppression. In 1971, the Pentagon Papers were leaked to The New York Times. In February 1955, President Eisenhower sent the first American military advisors to Vietnam to help build up Diem's army. "[213] All U.S. forces personnel were completely withdrawn by March 1973. The PAVN quickly overran the northern provinces and in coordination with other forces attacked from Cambodia, threatening to cut the country in half. Commitment of U.S. (and other allies) forces necessary to halt the losing trend by the end of 1965. While the bulk of ARVN forces attempted to flee, isolated units fought desperately. In Vietnam, the diary has often been compared to The Diary of Anne Frank, and both are used in literary education. President Eisenhower pledged his continued support, and a parade was held in Dim's honor in New York City. [46] Benjamin Valentino estimates 110,000310,000 deaths as a "possible case" of "counter-guerrilla mass killings" by U.S. and South Vietnamese forces during the war. Moyar, Mark. Kennedy believed that yet another failure to gain control and stop communist expansion would irreparably damage U.S. credibility. [85]:369. [98]:193194,202203,215217, The domino theory, which argued that if one country fell to communism, then all of the surrounding countries would follow, was first proposed as policy by the Eisenhower administration. It was additionally aimed at bolstering the morale of the South Vietnamese. Tr's plan called for a limited offensive from Cambodia into Phc Long Province. [40]:408411 Incorporating features from the German FG-42 and MG-42, the U.S. replaced their earlier M1919 Browning in most roles with the M60 machine gun, including on helicopters where it was used for suppressive fire. [85]:349351. Format BW Photograph, 8.5" x 11" Source United Press International Series American Experience Guenter Lewy asserts that one-third of the reported "enemy" killed may have been civilians, concluding that the actual number of deaths of PAVN/VC military forces was probably closer to 444,000. [71]:76. [40]:26[86] In September 1950, the United States created a Military Assistance and Advisory Group (MAAG) to screen French requests for aid, advise on strategy, and train Vietnamese soldiers. In March 1969 Nixon launched a massive secret bombing campaign, called Operation Menu, against communist sanctuaries along the Cambodia/Vietnam border. United States Vietnam Relations, 19451967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, vol. Beginning in the summer of 1955, Dim launched the "Denounce the Communists" campaign, during which suspected communists and other anti-government elements were arrested, imprisoned, tortured, or executed. [85]:19 John F. Kennedy, then a U.S. senator, said in a speech to the American Friends of Vietnam: "Burma, Thailand, India, Japan, the Philippines and obviously Laos and Cambodia are among those whose security would be threatened if the Red Tide of Communism overflowed into Vietnam."[106]. [40]:106[16] Violence between the insurgents and government forces increased drastically from 180 clashes in January 1960 to 545 clashes in September. [302], By 1975, the North Vietnamese had lost influence over the Khmer Rouge. [211][40]:576582, Vietnamization was again tested by the Easter Offensive of 1972, a massive conventional PAVN invasion of South Vietnam. [244], R.J. Rummel estimated that 39,000 were killed by South Vietnam during the Diem-era in democide from a range of between 16,000 and 167,000 people; for 1964 to 1975, Rummel estimated 50,000 people were killed in democide, from a range of between 42,000 and 128,000. [229] Anti-war protests declined after the signing of the Paris Peace Accords and the end of the draft in January 1973, and the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam in the months following. [131] General Paul Harkins, the commander of U.S. forces in South Vietnam, confidently predicted victory by Christmas 1963. Vietnam Democide: Estimates, Sources, and Calculations", "2021 NAME ADDITIONS AND STATUS CHANGES ON THE VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL", "Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics: HOSTILE OR NON-HOSTILE DEATH INDICATOR. "[119][120], Kennedy's policy toward South Vietnam assumed that Dim and his forces had to ultimately defeat the guerrillas on their own. [209] In AprilMay 1970, North Vietnam invaded Cambodia at the request of the Khmer Rouge following negotiations with deputy leader Nuon Chea. The relationship between Vietnam and Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia) escalated right after the end of the war. Neither the United States government nor Ng nh Dim's State of Vietnam signed anything at the 1954 Geneva Conference. [89] The official US Department of Defense figure was 950,765 PAVN/VC forces killed in Vietnam from 1965 to 1974. Gabriel Garca Mrquez, a Nobel Prize winning writer, described South Vietnam as a "False paradise" after the war, when he visited in 1980: The cost of this delirium was stupefying: 360,000 people mutilated, a million widows, 500,000 prostitutes, 500,000 drug addicts, a million tuberculous and more than a million soldiers of the old regime, impossible to rehabilitate into a new society. China "armed and trained" the Khmer Rouge during the civil war, and continued to aid them for years afterward. [168][167]:495 In the following Battle of Hu American forces employed massive firepower that left 80 percent of the city in ruins. The following month, the capitalist states of the United States and United Kingdom recognized the French-backed State of Vietnam in Saigon, led by former Emperor Bo i, as the legitimate Vietnamese government. [173] By the end of the first offensive, after two months, nearly 5,000 ARVN and over 4,000 U.S. forces had been killed and 45,820 wounded. The program killed 26,369 to 41,000 people, with an unknown number being innocent civilians. [94][95][40]:9697 The exodus was coordinated by a U.S.-funded $93million relocation program, which included the use of the Seventh Fleet to ferry refugees. By 1975, they had fully transformed from the strategy of mobile light-infantry and using the people's war concept used against the United States. [220][221][222]:9596 Minh was then escorted to Radio Saigon to announce the surrender declaration (spontaneously written by Tung). Forces Ambushes Moving VC/PAVN Units. Early opposition to U.S. involvement in Vietnam drew its inspiration from the Geneva Conference of 1954. In South Vietnam, many women voluntarily served in the ARVN's Women's Armed Force Corps (WAFC) and various other Women's corps in the military. When Diem announced the formation of Republic of Vietnam (later known as South Vietnam) in October 1955, Eisenhower immediately recognized and offered military and economic assistance to the new nation. [272], Women also played a prominent role as front-line reporters in the conflict, directly reporting on the conflict as it occurred. 5, pp. With respect to the question of reunification, the non-communist Vietnamese delegation objected strenuously to any division of Vietnam, but lost out when the French accepted the proposal of Viet Minh delegate Phm Vn ng,[103]:134 who proposed that Vietnam eventually be united by elections under the supervision of "local commissions". He was against the deployment of American combat troops and observed that "to introduce U.S. forces in large numbers there today, while it might have an initially favorable military impact, would almost certainly lead to adverse political and, in the long run, adverse military consequences. Others served as nurses and doctors in the battlefield and in military hospitals, or served in South Vietnam or America's intelligence agencies. Learn why a country that had been barely known to most Americans came to define an era. The circumstances of the attacks were murky. [40]:514 After news reports of American military abuses, such as the 1968 My Lai Massacre, brought new attention and support to the anti-war movement, some veterans joined Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
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